“House lights down, spotlight on.” Ilja Richter’s legendary catch phrase floats above the imagery of Thorsten Schmidtkord’s current project. While the party of cult show Disco (1972 - 1982) was an exciting event with lots of colour- ful light, people and music, the slogan takes on a new meaning in Schmidtkord’s work: the spotlight is for the protagonists, around them: emptiness. The situation due to Covid-19 gave the Düsseldorf photographer the chance to do what he calls “photography of the soul”. The pictures in his series show motifs from contemporary history that would

not have been so easy to realize under normal circumstances. Düsseldorf’s public figures can be seen alone in their empty habitat. People who create life, art and culture in Düsseldorf and its surroundings. Schmidtkord always places a single protago- nist in the focus of the picture by means of targeted lighting, whereas the location itself is deserted and empty, darkly visible in the background — and yet with recognition value. The entire series is to be exhibited in Düsseldorf until the end of 2020.